Saturday, January 20, 2018

Shutdown: the Atrocity and the Odds

As everyone not living under a rock knows by now, the USA has a government shutdown. As the negotiations evolved it has become clear that mass deportation of the DREAMers is the sticking point: both the House Freedom Caucus and John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, who has the President's ear, support mass deportations, while the Congressional Democrats oppose them, with a substantial faction of Republicans as swing votes.

The Republicans are perfectly willing to let the country turn into a shambles waiting, Trump doesn't care as long a he feels like he is winning, and the Democrats are genuinely concerned with the state of the USA. It is just possible that some of the less-fascist Republicans will break, but it is more likely, I think, that the Democrats will; they have not been willing to fight for long years.

I hope the Democrats do stand fast. Mass deportations are, literally, something out of the Nazi past. Should the United States pursue such a policy, Homeland Security will be vastly expanded and will, once the deportations are done, turn to other atrocities.